On Wednesday, February 1st, American Airlines announced that it will take the advice of Mitt Romney’s firm, Bain Capital, and lay off 13,000 workers -15 percent of its workforce- replacing their pension plans with 401(k) plans and ending company-paid retiree healthcare.

The lay off announcement came only seven days after American Airlines hired Bain Capital to guide it through a bankruptcy procedure for which the airline had filed last November.

American Airlines spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal, the cost of hiring Bain – hourly fees of up to $1,100- as “a usual and necessary part of the Chapter 11 process. We will be reviewing these costs carefully to ensure that they are monitored and managed appropriately.”

// ]]>

Bain Capital is a private equity firm, which was founded by a group of Bain & Co. partners including current Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney. Romney formally retired from Bain Capital in 1999 but still continues to receive a portion of Bain Capital profits as Romney’s 2010 tax returns show an “obligation to continue to provide services to Bain.”

Joshua Gotbaum, director of The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) – the federal agency that helps secure failed pension plans – said “before AMR takes such a drastic action as firing 13,000 workers and killing the pension plans of 130,000 employees and retirees, it needs to show there is no better alternative. The company had failed to provide even basic financial details.”

James Little the President of Transport Workers Union (TWU), which represents 24,000 workers said “We’re going to fight this. I have a hard time sitting back when American Airlines is taking hard-earned money to pay $525,000 a month to have Bain come in and tell them how to cut heads.”

AMR plans to purchase hundreds of new aircrafts to replace them with more fuel efficient ones to cut fuel use. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane has not yet approved the new jet order but temporarily approved AMR’s proposal to retain Bain and 11 other firms for bankruptcy counsel, but withheld final approval.

Unions are outraged that the airline would order hundreds of new aircrafts but claim it is in severe enough financial distress to sack employees and cut pension plans.

Help us get the word out!

Author: Emine Dilek
Emine Dilek is a journalist/writer, radio host, and a women’s rights activist.
She works as a columnist for PALM BEACH woman, a business magazine for women. She is also a contributing editor for Women's Views on News, a UK based news magazine covering women's news from around the world. She has two blogs where she writes about women’s issues and translates poetry.
She has covered UN Women events and interviewed high profile guests such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Many of her articles have been published in The New Agenda, The Vibe, W.E.A Women @ Work, Amazing Women Rock and ICAHK.
She also produces and hosts a radio program called Women’s Voice to connect women around the world so that they can share their expertise, support each other’s causes and understand the root causes of problems at local level.
She has been an active member of NOW (National Organisation for Women) for years. She is also a member of WOW (Women for Women International), The New Agenda, Women’s Refugee Commission, Dynamic Diaspora: Women and Immigration, and many other women’s organizations.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management

With luck (and an ENORMOUS amount of election monitoring at EVERY level, to insure against the fraud that WILL be committed by the GOP we can expose this traitor for what he is – the GOP’s hatchet man, whose job is NOT to govern the country, but to complete the process of selling its resources and treasury to his billionaire friends.

They GOP knows it CANNOT win the vote, so it plans to rig the elections in multiple ways and locations, from national to local.

So all the press is irrelevant, they are mostly owned and take their marching orders from right-wing owners, who love to print articles about the “liberal press” so you will believe that they are on YOUR side (they’re not…)

All the ads are irrelevant – all the billions that will be thrown on this election is being paid for by higher cost of goods – if the index goes up that’s your corporate super-PAC dollars being collected.

LAST CHANCE TO THROW OUT THE NATION-KILLERS. This IS a hostile takeover by the same corporate assholes who do this daily to small businesses that wanted ot play with the big dogs. (Sma;; biz owner works his ass off, builds a solid reliable firm that treats its customers and employees well. So he goes public, and Bain buys 51% of the stock, sells off the assets, fires the employees, steals the pension fund and all other assets, and kills the company. That’s what they do, and Romney was the head executioner.

WHAT DO YOU THINK HIS PLANS ARE FOR YOUR COUNTRY? TO BUILD IT UP?
He doesn’t know HOW to build, his expertise is in dismantling.
They already got the CEO bailouts, the banks, many, many feral mortgages and lots of retirement accounts. Stop him before we are COMPLETELY sold out.

You know you live in Bizarro World when Bain/Romney can spin the forced loss of 13,000 private sector jobs as important to the creation of private sector jobs, and Fox News can spin it the EXACT SAME WAY.